(Please note that I posted this here a week after I sent it to the Working for Good email list and at the same time as I posted Week 3 here. So don’t be confused if the reference to week 2 and 3 don’t line up with different posting dates).

Building on last week’s focus on Conscious Awareness, this week’s focus is ostensibly on applying Conscious Awareness. OK, what do I mean by “ostensibly on” applying Conscious Awareness?  Through my work with Peter Baumann and The Baumann Foundation, I am deepening my understanding of the fact that things are not always what they appear to be – perhaps rarely what they appear to be. We may think we are making decisions and making something happen, but it seems that decisions are made in and by the organism that is our body/mind literally before we know it. (Here’s a link to one of many current sources of information about how we decide.)

While I have always had somewhat of an aversion to self-help programs and not been interested in creating one (this Working for Good Challenge is NOT a self-help program, but an invitation to reflection and exploration), I am beginning to understand why they fall short and, perhaps, a more reasonable way to approach the idea of growth, development and change. More below!

Here is a brief summary of the Working for Good Challenge for those of you who did not read this last week:

The Purpose of this challenge is to deepen our practice of Working for Good by focusing our attention on essential ideas and actions.

The Process is simple.

• Focus Overview: At the beginning of the week, starting this week and continuing for four more weeks, I will send an email outlining the focus for the week.
• Practice: if you want to participate, you can practice the focus during the day – at work, at home, at play – whenever and however you do so.
• Dialog: If you have questions, comments or suggestions for me or for others, you can post them at the Working for Good Facebook page, where I will be making and responding to comments, and facilitating conversations.
• Reflect: At the end of the week I will send a brief email with some questions and reflections, and an invitation to you to reflect on the week’s practice and to join the upcoming week’s Focus/Practice.

Overview of the Six Focuses
Focus #1: Practice Conscious Awareness
Focus #2: Hydrate (applying Conscious Awareness)
Focus #3: Tune in to others
Focus #4: Inquire
Focus #5  Listen
Focus #6: Engage

Focus #2: Hydrate – Applying Conscious Awareness

Per my opening comment, this weeks’ focus is ostensibly on applying Conscious Awareness, with a focus on hydrating (that is, drinking fluids that deliver water to your cells, for healthy metabolic function). I chose Hydration because it is something that your body/organism will do or seek to do whether you think about it or not. The organism wants to live and without water, it will perish.

What also appears to be true is that because we spend so much time in our heads – with our thoughts and emotions – we are often disconnected from the sensations and related messages coming from our external and internal environments. We don’t hydrate when our body/organism optimally wants us too, but when we get to a point of dehydration – lack of sufficient water for optimal functioning. The nearly out of gas sign is flashing before we fill the tank.

So the idea with this focus is not to remember to hydrate or to drink a prescribed amount of water (or, my favorite, O.N.E. Coconut Water) per day, but to tune into the body sensation of thirst or need for hydration. If your organism is in touch with the sensation of the need for hydration, it will drive you to do so without you really making a decision to do so. And I suspect it will do so before you reach the point of dehydration – of having less than an optimal level of water moving through your body.

This IS an experiment and an exploration of the idea of focusing on the reflective capacity of the mind – on conscious awareness – with some direction, rather than on focusing on a specific action. And you don’t have to focus on hydrating. That is just a suggestion. We do the same thing with breath and breathing. Our body breathes without us asking or making it do so, but while we are wandering around in our heads, we often hold our breath.

Here is one way to work with this focus:

• Tune in: To begin, sit or stand comfortably and take a few deep breaths. Scan your body to see if you are holding tension anywhere and imagine you are breathing into that area, letting it relax as you exhale.
• Focus on the feeling of thirst or hydration or thirst being quenched. Are your lips moist or dry? Your mouth? Does your body feel relaxed and expanded or does it feel tight and contracted? (Think of a sponge. When it is hydrated it is soft and expanded. When it is dry or dehydrated it is stiff and tight.) See if you can sense the fluid level in your body. Is it sufficient or deficient?
• Go for it: Live your life and go through your days as you normally would, with the slight difference of noting and observing your level of hydration. Just that. You don’t have to change anything or fix anything, just observe what you are experiencing. You will drink when you do. And you will pass it through when you do. Perhaps you can focus on the relationship between hydrating and passing liquid through.
• Optional Tuning In: To support the process of focusing on hydration, you may want to stop and tune in again, as above and check in with what you identified as your focus.
• Reflect: At the end of the day or the week you may want to reflect on the experience.
• Share: If you are so inclined, join us on the Working for Good Facebook page and share your experience or raise questions.

I am interested to see if I drink more often or greater quantities or if I reach the “thirsty” point less this week than normally. And to see what other insights or awareness come from focusing attention on the sensation of fluid regulation.